1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally to routing service requests, and more specifically, the invention relates to methods and systems for organizing and routing service requests in order to reduce the total processing time, or workload, needed to process the requests.
2. Background Art
In many situations or enterprises, a variety of types of requests are processed. For instance, in an enterprise-computing environment, in which data and processing are dispersed over a network of computers, various types of reports are commonly generated. For example, some reports may be generated at regular intervals, such as daily or weekly, to record activities and use of resources of the enterprise. Other reports may be generated when certain specified or defined incidents or events occur. Such reports, referred to as incident reports or incidents, may be generated when certain changes are requested or made or when error or fault or other types of conditions are detected that require the attention of an administrator or that, for other reasons, need to be recorded. These incident reports may be created, for example, by a service desk that services or administers the enterprise, or in a change management database (CMDB).
Also, in telephone call centers or similar service centers, a number of people may call and make requests. These requests may be, for example, for information, for products or for services. A large number of employees may be available at the call center to respond to the requests; and, using one procedure or another, the calls are directed to the call center employees for processing or servicing.
In many enterprises, the requests, such as incidence reports and change requests, are quite inhomogeneous in nature. This creates difficulties in allocating the appropriate task force to the requests, since the processing times for the requests, and hence the associated workloads, will vary significantly.